


Aviator

by pprfaith



Series: Wishlist 2014 [9]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Aviation, Community: wishlist_fic, Flying, M/M, Pre-Canon, Prompt Fic, Sappy, happy fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:23:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2826569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pprfaith/pseuds/pprfaith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Rhodey flies and Tony makes it so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aviator

**Author's Note:**

> Miniongrin asked for Marvel MCU – Tony/Rhodey – Aviation and flying
> 
> This was the easiest ficlet this year. I hope that doesn't mean it's bad.

+

Rhodey has been in love with flying since he was seven and his uncle took him up in this tiny, tiny tin can of a private plane and he realized that he was _higher than the clouds_. 

It was a different world and Rhodey spent the next fifteen years of his life fighting to get back up there, to that other world, to that place where the sun shines eternally and the air tastes like being alive and it’s cold enough to freeze your bones and so, so beautiful.

There’s no worries up there, no taxes, no traffic, no relationships, no rent, no school, no alarm clocks, no fighting parents and drinking roommates, no grief, no loss, no fear, no racism, no… nothing. 

There’s nothing human up there, except you and what you bring. 

(Every night, since that day with his uncle, Rhodey dreams of having wings.)

Flying is what he lives for and when he finally goes up in a military plane on his own for the first time, he thinks he’s found perfection. 

+

He meets Tony fucking Stark in a museum, of all damn places. 

He’s standing under an old bomber from World War II, staring alternately at the plaque that says Captain America flew this plane, and the stubby nose of the lady, proud and battered in the neon lights. 

Rhodey doesn’t even realize who he’s standing next to, just looking up and up and imagining flying this behemoth, this titan of aviation. 

Then the guy beside him snorts and says, “I could build better than this when I was twelve,” and Rhodey looks at him, snot-nosed and no older than seventeen, and realizes it’s the kid everyone’s been talking about on campus, the little genius boy. 

Tony Stark. 

Brat.

“This lady was the height of engineering in her day, sturdy, solid, and she flies despite being as heavy and bulky as she is. She’s amazing.”

The kid slants him a look. “Well, yeah. But I could do better.”

And Rhodey says, “Prove it.”

+

Tony has the pocket money of a god, and he builds a plane in his spare time, just to prove to Rhodey that he can. 

At first, Rhodey thinks he’ll draw up some specs and some plans and call it a bet won, but then he rents a hangar somewhere and starts welding and Rhodey has to hand it to him, he’s dedicated. And not afraid to get his hands dirty.

And so it just happens that, two years after meeting Tony fucking Stark in the middle of an aviation exhibit at the museum, a year after finishing school, he sits in a plane that’s been _hand-made_ by Tony fucking Stark, with the man in question yelling in his ear, “Come on, come on, come on, baby, don’t leave me hanging!”

And he picks up speed, picks up wind and suddenly he’s _flying_.

Tony built him a _plane_ , and somehow he’s crazy enough, trusting enough, to _fly it_ , and it’s… it’s not perfect. It’s bumpy and unfinished in places, rough and untested. 

It’s still the best feeling in the world and he whoops into his headset, grinning like a lunatic because of course Tony was right. This plane is better than anything the military has ever built before. 

+

In interviews, Rhodey will sometimes say, in a quiet voice, that Tony gave him the gift of flying. 

It’s an exaggeration, in a way. 

But it’s also really, really true. 

+

When he lands, after that first Stark-powered flight, Rhodey doesn’t think, just lets the thrum of adrenalin carry him over to where Tony, teenaged and lanky and still soft around the eyes, is bouncing in place, and he kisses him until he’s dizzy all over again, but this time from lack of oxygen.

And Tony kisses him back, licks into his mouth and mutters, “You flew, you flew, Rhodey, I made you fly.”

+

They keep going like that for neigh-on twenty years.

Tony builds Rhodey things that make him fly, things that bring him above the clouds, to freedom and peace and sheer, unadulterated joy, and Rhodey comes down again every time, comes down and goes back to Tony, who builds him new wings and sends him up again. 

Someone once said, if you love it, set it free, and Rhodey doesn’t really understand why everyone thinks Tony is an asshole – except, okay, he is – but in some things he’s as unselfish as they come because really, all Tony has done since that first flight is set Rhodey free. 

Every machine he builds for the military, every new plane, every weapon, they’re all for Rhodey, really, and every time he lifts off, Tony lets him go. 

And he always returns. 

+

And then, the suit. 

Tony disappears, Tony dies, Tony comes back with a mechanical heart ticking in his chest, and Tony builds real, honest-to-god, fucking _wings_ , and for the first time, he doesn’t give them to Rhodey.

He keeps them. 

It hurts. 

+

It hurts right until Tony saves the damn world from Obi and then comes swooping in a few days later, in a new suit, all metal and flash, and he’s whooping with joy, faceplate going up, and kissing Rhodey stupid, right there, in the middle of his workshop and says, “Jesus fuck, I am amazing, I built this, this is the best thing ever!”

His cheeks are red and his eyes are damp with laughter, his hair is plastered to his head with sweat and Rhodey tastes Tony and metal and freedom and thinks, _oh_.

Because this is what Tony has been tasting for twenty years, this is what it’s like when someone climbs out of the sky to come back to you, and it’s not better than flying, but it’s pretty damn close. 

+


End file.
